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15 killed as Myanmar troops attack anti-India rebels

	January 31, 2005

Heavy fighting in the thick jungles of neighbouring Myanmar between

Government soldiers and Indian tribal separatists has claimed at least 15 lives, a rebel leader has said.



Kughalo Mulatonu, a leader of the Khaplang faction of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN), which is fighting for a tribal homeland in India’s northeastern state of Nagaland, said the group lost five of its cadres in intense shelling by soldiers of the military-run Myanmar on their jungle bases.

“Myanmarese soldiers attacked some of our bases with rocket launchers and mortars killing five of our fighters,” Mulatonu said on telephone from an undisclosed location along the India-Myanmar border.



“We also killed 10 of their soldiers in retaliatory strikes. The battle is still continuing between the two sides.”



The military offensive to evict anti-India separatists from Myanmar began in December with at least three brigades (about 10,000 personnel) involved in the operation.



The NSCN leader said they had lost half-a-dozen mobile camps during the first burst of strikes by Myanmarese soldiers in December.



“There was a brief lull in the offensive by Myanmar. The latest strikes began on Wednesday when troops started targeting our camps,” Mulatonu said.

The latest offensive is taking place along the Chindwin River in north Myanmar, close to the abandoned World War II Shempuyang airport.



There has been no immediate confirmation of the military offensive from Myanmar.

Mulatonu said that all top NSCN leaders, including Chairman S.S. Khaplang, are safe.

“If things do not go beyond control then we are all set to celebrate our (NSCN) silver jubilee next week in one of our main bases inside Myanmar,” he said.

The NSCN was formed on January 31 1980. Mulatonu said the NSCN has at least 50 camps with some 5,000 guerilla fighters entrenched in fortified bunkers in Sagaing division of Myanmar.

At least four other militant groups from India’s northeast, where numerous tribal and ethnic groups are fighting for greater autonomy or independence, have training camps in northern Myanmar’s thick jungles - all of them sheltered there under the patronage of the NSCN.

“Our fighters are prepared to either die but we are not going to leave our bases,” Mulatonu said. The NSCN’s Khaplang faction has been observing a ceasefire with New Delhi since 2001 although peace talks are yet to begin.

In October, Myanmar’s military strongman, General Than Shwe, ended a visit to India with a pledge that the junta would not let anti-India rebels operate from its soil.

The last time Myanmar launched a military operation against the NSCN and other Indian rebels was in 2001 when at least a dozen separatists were killed.

India and Myanmar share a 1,640-km unfenced border, allowing militants from the northeast to use the adjoining country as a springboard to carry out hit-and-run guerilla strikes on federal soldiers.